Moving toward a new vision of “Happy Railway”, railway station areas in Taiwan not only play the role of critical nodes in national spatial development but also the role of key places for citizens' daily life, work, recreation and social activities. Through reviewing the experiences of advanced countries, this paper aims to analyze the current issues of developing areas around domestic railway stations and proposes suggested development approaches for various railway station areas. Finally, this paper concludes with fundamental elements essential to successful development of the railway station areas in Taiwan. It is expected that the arguments proposed in this paper will be beneficial for the development and redevelopment of the station areas, and therefore transform the built environment into one featuring environmental sustainability, efficiency, creativity, cultural and natural diversity, as a result of promoting railway transportation.